Is gastronomy crucial for UNESCO sites’ tourists? An important exploratory Italian study

Abstract The paper analyses the role of gastronomic experiences as potential tourist attractions for local development. The decision to focus on a particular UNESCO site, as the Carolino aqueduct, is based on a perceived knowledge gap regarding the lack of tourists for the Carolino aqueduct. The work is based on quantitative data collection among potential visitors of the aqueduct Carolino. Altogether, 840 valid questionnaires were collected a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied. Findings reveal that that people’s motivation, supplied food, prior knowledge and past experiences influence the gastronomic experiences. The gastronomic experiences in turn affect both satisfaction with the destination and destination loyalty. Thus, gastronomic experiences should be useful path to support the tourism in a UNESCO site, as the aqueduct Carolino. When discussing issues related to the cultural heritage, the question arises as to how should enhance the cultural heritage for tourism reasons. The results of this research demonstrate that gastronomic experiences are imperative to the success of cultural heritage tourism.